Tuesday

We had an awesome time yesterday hiking the Gulf Hagas Loop Trail. The trail runs along the ridge of a canyon that was created by the West Branch Pleasant River. The gorge has sheer walls that are about 400 feet high and it is surrounded by trees and other vegetation. The trail stayed as close as it could to the edge of the canyon, but several times we had to take spurs in to see the falls. There was a series of 6 falls on the trail, it was spectacular.

We ate lunch at the lower end of the Screw Auger Falls. I'll post pictures when we get back to KC.

Lunch Break at Lower Screw Auger Falls

The trail was challenging, to say the least. There was a lot of climbing involved. In fact, if I lost the trail, which I did a few times, I just had to look for the most vertical ascent or descent and I'd find a blue mark painted on a rock 20 feet directly above my head or below my feet. It was a riot. Definitely the most challenging hike I've been on in my adult life.

Look up for the blue mark

Up she goes!

The map of the trail cautions users not to underestimate the exertion required to complete the trail. It says, "In the past several years a number of people have become lost, hurt, or exhausted because they underestimated the difficulty of the hike." I can see why! Jack and I were ready to quit when we finished the loop, but we finished in good form! Not lost, not hurt, and not exhausted. Tired yes, but still laughing and having a good time! Not bad for a couple of old rookies! It felt good to surprise the ranger when we turned in our day pass. I could tell she was surprised when I answered her question about how we did. Before we started she gave us old folk some cautionary words, I don't think she thought we'd complete the whole loop, but we did. It took us about 6 hours, all together.

I ate more yesterday. After entering in my calories and exercise on Tuesday I realized I under ate rather significantly. Yesterday's hike was much more difficult than Monday's, by the end I felt like I had just finished a hilly 100 mile bike ride. So I purposely ate about 2600 calories. It was a little difficult to not eat more than that. As we were cooking dinner last night I wanted to scarf down anything that wasn't attached to the table, but I made do with a few prunes.

We had a delicious dinner yesterday of grilled chicken sausage with sautéed onions and peppers, sweet potato fries, and sliced avocado and tomato. Yum! Then, of course, we couldn't let the hot coals go to waste, so we had s'mores! A perfect reward after our crazy day on the trails of Maine!

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Location:Gulf Hagas Loop Trail